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Cash-only businesses can improve operations with a money counter

Cash-only small businesses can invest in a money counter to keep track of incoming funds.

While many businesses opt for advanced payment methods, such as digital wallets and credit or debit cards, there remain many who operate with mostly or entirely cash sales. GOBankingRates.com reported some of the most popular all- or mostly-cash businesses include:

Young adults aren't the only ones sticking to cold, hard cash for their preferred payment method. Many small businesses across the country have yet to install a card payment terminal at their checkout counters.

There are several benefits to avoiding high-tech payment methods, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. For example, when a business accepts a card payment, a chunk of the profits is eaten up by card processing fees and other service charges issued to the business. When a customer hands over coins or bills, however, no such charges come into question.

Additionally, business owners who run cards at their locations often have one nagging thought in the back of their minds: the potential for fraud. Since EMV was largely rolled out in the U.S. in 2015, point of sale fraud should begin to decrease, according to CreditCards.com. It won't be eliminated completely, though. And, businesses who have yet to upgrade their payment terminals to accept chip cards will be responsible for POS fraud that does occur at their location. However, none of these concerns are relevant to the cash-only business owner.

Fraud is difficult to pull off in a cash-only environment, SBA noted. The primary way a scammer could take advantage of a cash-only business is through counterfeit money. However, there are ways to detect this. For example, some advanced cash counters, such as those available from Cummins Allison, come equipped with a counterfeit currency detector.

While there are plenty of advantages of running a cash-only shop, there are some drawbacks. The Balance pointed out that the IRS keeps a close eye on businesses that deal mostly with cash. Some criminals run cash-only businesses to easily cover up income and avoid paying taxes.

While an honest business wouldn't intentionally underreport earnings, the person keeping tabs on incoming revenue is prone to human error. Miscounting funds can look suspicious to the IRS, and may prompt an investigation.

Cash-only businesses can avoid costly mistakes by incorporating a money counter into their operations. These machines will accurately tally up your earnings for you and can save totals digitally so you can easily reference them later.